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Chapter 30
This chapter was sponsored by Tyler Fulton who sent this message which I must acknowledge: "I'll never remove ad-block but I'll donate".
Editor: ZeXU
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As the battle continued on, Marcus found out that he hadn't underestimated the strength of orcs but he had with the elves and riflemen.
Indeed, 300 grunts wouldn't be able to accomplish much had there been no elf archers and dwarf riflemen backing them up and causing massive casualties. Marcus's side suffered losses— not because of the orcs, but because of the elves and dwarves.
Grunts weren't less capable but there was a limit to how many people they could fight against at a given time. Marcus had wanted to rely on their mage to break the formation of orcs then press forward with his warriors to finish the orcs for good. However, Tyrande and riflemen had killed the mage before he had the chance to act.
In addition, the elven archers were using Shadow Escape which made them invisible. As a result, Marcus still didn't know how many archers Xiao Yu had. Moreover, the existence of "magical weapons" used by the riflemen had put him into the disadvantage.
Xiao Yu was using the advantage of high ground to perfection. The archers were elites and a great threat to Marcus. He clearly understood that he will face defeat if the battle continued on in this manner.
This world was still in the era of cold weapons, so Marcus wasn't familiar with the power that long-range weapons could play in warfare. As a modern man, Xiao Yu knew and understood how to use long-range attacks to his advantage.
Napoleon had also been an advocate of using centralized heavy weapons in long-range attacks to suppress his enemies. As long as one side was able to suppress the other then victory was just a step away.
As a result, the grunts and footmen weren't the part of Xiao Yu's troops in this battle that provided the lethality, but the archers and riflemen.
Riflemen had neither the flexibility nor the speed of archers. In the time span that a dwarf could shoot a bullet, an elf archer could have shot five arrows. However, the power of the bullets was enough to suppress and even kill warriors who cultivated battle energy, so both of them played a crucial role.
Xiao Yu also thought that as long as he had a mage, footmen, cavalry, and warriors then he would be able to face troops that consisted of hundreds of thousands— or even millions— of soldiers.
Alas, the number of his troops was limited. The only thing he could do at this point was diversify his troops. Otherwise, he would have suffered a defeat long ago.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Marcus was smart enough to understand that the battle couldn't continue this way or his demise would near. He quickly ordered the bandits to move back. Marcus was afraid Xiao Yu's archers.
Marcus was furious and, simultaneous, depressed. This was his own camp yet the enemy was using the walls that he had constructed against himself. If he had control of the walls since the start then even those strong archers wouldn't be able to do anything to him. However, Xiao Yu was now using these walls as a weapon against Marcus.
Xiao Yu had been shrewd enough to observe the battleground before the battle.
Xiao Yu was aware that the other side had cavalry that could easily bypass his 300 grunts and reach his archers. This was the reason he had decided to take control of the walls first and start the battle afterward.
If he had directly went against the bandits and siege the camp he would have faced the same fate. The archers and dwarves wouldn't have been able to suppress the patrolmen from a distance. The chance of grunts successfully climbing and getting into the walls would have been much less.
Xiao Yu knew and understood the disadvantages of his troops. Nevertheless, he had been the winner of a Warcraft competition that many elite players had participated in. He had used tactics like the one he employed now and many other sophisticated ones to win the game. Although there was much difference between the real world and the game Xiao Yu's understanding of the situation was a step ahead because this backward world was still using cold weapons.
Xiao Yu didn't give chase when Marcus ordered his bandits to retreat. Xiao Yu understood that he wouldn't be enemy's opponent once he lost the walls.
Nevertheless, Xiao Yu's troops were able to kill about 600 bandits during the initial stage while chaos raged. Afterwards, Marcus had lost more than 1, 000 more bandits. In total, Marcus had lost 2, 000 bandits, including his mage and 5 warriors.
Either Tyrande or a rifleman had killed each of those 5 warriors that had cultivated battle energy.
Warriors used their battle energy to resist ordinary archer's arrows, but their bodies couldn't withstand Tyrande's Searing Arrow or a rifleman's bullets.
"Xiao Yu! I will remember your name for an eternity! I'll massacre your Lion town after I kill you here!" Marcus was furious. He had never had such a big failure since he began his robbing career. In less than half an hour he had lost almost 2, 000 bandits. The camp in total had less than 5, 000; this number meant that he had lost half of his men.
Xiao Yu shouted when he saw bandits get out of range of archers: "Hey! Offspring of a human and animal! I thought you wanted to kill me and slaughter the Lion town! What a joke! I was chosen by the God of Elves, God of Orcs and God of Dwarves as the King of Kings! I will rule the world so either bow down or die! Do you still intend to continue this fight against me?"
Xiao Yu was not a stranger to scuffles and curses because of he was an avid gamer. He had run into many players who would use interesting methods to trash talk others and change their temper. He had met many trolls online. In short, he was invincible in this area. How could mere Marcus be his opponent?
"King of Kings? You? I'll peel off your skin today! Get the heavy cavalry ready!" Marcus's face was grim as he ordered his bandits.
The equipment that the heavy cavalry's men and horses wore needed a certain amount of time to be prepared. The night attack had been an ambush so the cavalry couldn't be brought out immediately. However, they were ready now and waiting for Marcus's orders.
In the era of cold weapons, heavy cavalry was the most important part of the army. A team of heavy cavalry could directly break through the formation of the enemy. The infantry would follow after them and massacre the left overs. It was possible to win a complete victory that way.
In many big battles, both sides would confront each other with the heavy cavalry. The side that overwhelmed the other would win.
Ordinary bandit group didn't have the money to support heavy cavalry. Although the cavalry was powerful, having them was costly. A good heavy cavalry unit consisted of trained soldiers, specially selected horses, good equipment, and so on. In short, an average heavy cavalry unit with a soldier and horse would cost thousands of gold coins. Marcus had accumulated his wealth for over a decade, but he was still only able to nurture 300 heavy cavalry units. However, with just this cavalry of 300 had helped him win against many opponents.
The horses began to rush towards the front. To have such a heavy cavalry troop was a symbol of strength for this bandit group.
At the same time, the rear of the camp was still on fire. Although Marcus had sent people to deal with it, doing so wasn't an easy feat. Marcus had to end the battle as soon as possible and kill Xiao Yu so that they could extinguish the fire on time. Otherwise, the camp that he had spent more than a dozen years to build would turn into ashes.
Neigh~~
Klopp~ Klopp~ Klopp~
The 300 heavy cavalry assembled. The ground slightly trembled as the cavalry moved.
Ordinary horses weren't meant for the heavy cavalry unit. You had to walk for thousand miles to find one. The horse had to be extremely strong; enough so that it could wear this heavy armor.
As a result, purchasing horses for the heavy cavalry had a very big headache for marcus.
The commander of the heavy cavalry led his troops to a standstill about 300 steps from the wall. They stopped in a formation.
"Charge and kill those orcs!" Marcus's face twitched as he ordered them. He knew that his losses would be great even if he killed Xiao Yu. In Marcus's perspective, Xiao Yu was way too despicable as he even had set fire to his camp.
...
...
Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the army of heavy cavalry. A treacherous light flashed past his eyes.
"It's good that I have two Glaive Throwers and the riflemen. Otherwise, it would be impossible to use just grunts and archers to kill the heavy cavalry."
Xiao Yu waved his hand and four grunts quietly carried out two Glaive Throwers from the back.
"Charge!" Marcus ordered.
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